Festival Of Memory
by mitzirocker
Summary: A couple of years before the whole mess with Astral and the Emperor's Key, Yuma goes to Domino for the tournament of his life - at least, that's what he thought then. Pre-canon. DISCONTINUED
1. Leaving The Nest

Mitzi here! The Enemy Has The Move was getting too depressing, so I wrote this as a little break for my brain. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Not mine, blah blah blah. Hey, did you know this disclaimer is legally useless? Still, it's tradition. :shrugs:

**Story Notes: **Set about two years pre-ZeXal, which translates to 20ish years post 5Ds, around 55 years post GX and 70 years give or take post DM in my headcanon. Doesn't match up to fanon precisely, but eh. I expect this to be four or five chapters long.

Festival Of Memory

Chapter 1: Leaving The Nest

"No."

"Dad!"

"Yuma, you know this household's stance on Duel Monsters."

"But Dad…"

"No. That is final. You are not going."

Yuma can tell from his father's tone that further arguing is useless. He groans and turns off his D-Gazer. Numbers whiz down as the lights of D-World fade into the colours of the real world. He takes it off and slumps onto the couch.

"You knew he'd say no."

Yuma doesn't bother to correct his sister. She's right, of course, but he doesn't feel like arguing the point.

Apparently, neither does Akari, because she murmurs, "You're such an idiot," and brings up a screen. Soon, she's happily typing away doing whatever big sisters do when they're not nagging their little brothers.

For lack of anything else to do, Yuma turns on the TV. One argument with the voice steering later he's sitting down ready to watch his favourite episode of ESPer Robin.

"And now, a word from our sponsor!" trills the voiceover woman, and as the mascot dragons dance and fight, Yuma is reminded why he's stopped watching TV.

Somehow, he didn't mind back when he was a little kid. He was too young to work either a D-Pad or his grandmother's old duel disk, and certainly too young to ride a D-Wheel, so it held no attraction for him. Now, with Tetsuo's 'help', he's learning to duel (admittedly failing miserably, but it's the principle of the thing), which means he's old enough to be tempted by the forbidden joy of Battle City.

"Baturu Shiti…" he whispers, rolling the words on his tongue. That wonderful festival of dueling, that comes once every five years in a city far to the south of Heartland. It's a must for each and every serious duelist (and Yuma has no doubt that he is one) to go at least once, if not participate. Unfortunately, his international ranking is far too low to enter him to the central tournament, but he at least wanted to watch.

He's got himself annoyed now, and grumbles throughout the episode. When it ends and the ad starts again, he buries his head in the cushions.

Next thing he knows, he's being suspended in midair on the end of a broom.

"No grandson of mine is going to spend a fine summer day moping around in front of the TV! Go outside and play!"

"But Grandma…"

"No excuses! Out!" She catches sight of Akari. Before either of her grandchildren can see what's happening, she has Akari pinned to a wall.

"No granddaughter of mine is going to spend a fine summer day moping around in front of the computer! Go outside and play!"

"But Grandma…"

"No excuses! Out!" She kicks the switch that opens the sliding door and throws the pair of them out onto the lawn. A moment later, she throws out their D-Gazers.

Yuma climbs to his feet, picks it up, turns it on and groans; she's disabled D-World access, so the only thing he can do with it is buy stuff and call people. Akari swears loudly; she's done the same to hers.

The two of them spend the next few minutes calling their friends. Tetsuo's practicing for BaShi, Kotori's doing homework, and everyone else is out of town or busy.

Akari's luckier, it seems, because she's telling Tsuko to wait for her at Kawaii Paradise. She takes off her D-Gazer, waves to Yuma, goes to her car, swears again and sets off running.

Yuma takes off his D-Gazer and goes to get his D-Pad and deck, before remembering that he left them at Tetsuo's. He calls his friend again, but after waiting at least five minutes decides to just go to the park. He boots up his hoverboard, and is there before he knows it.

Trouble is, there's nothing to do there.

Oh, sure, there're plenty of workstations and activities, but they're all in D-World. All of the stuff that isn't in D-World is either closed for the summer (by which they mean Battle City) or for little kids. Except for the swings, of course…

Back out, legs straight ahead. _Shyunk._ Body clutched into a ball. _Kwaggan. _Out. _Shyunk._ In. _Kwaggan._ Out. In. Out. In. _Shyunk. Kwaggan. Shyunk. Kwaggan. Shyunkkwagganshyunkkwaggan…_

And now he's completely horizontal, each new arc struggling against gravity. _Yes! I'm striking for the sky!_

Then, wonder of wonders, he completes an arc, soaring down with the _kwaggan_ as it becomes a _shyunk_, and again, and again, the adrenaline rushing to his head.

_Shyunk! Kwaggan! Shyunk! Kwaggan! Shyu_-snap!

The next thing he knows he's lying on his back on the ground. He's managed to clear the safety bounce that surrounds the swings, though he'll bet he hit it at least once. He slowly clambers to his feet. Nothing serious; a few cuts and scrapes and bruises, but Yuma's ninja grandmother and habit of striking for the sky mean he always has a few of those anyway.

A red blob lands on the ground beside him. Yuma puts his hand on his head and feels the sticky warmth of blood.

As the lightheadedness starts, he lies down on the safety bounce and sets his D-Gazer to call Grandma.

-0-0-0-

Pretty much everyone in town is at the mall, so Yuma is there too. It's a week after he broke the swing.

He's with Kotori and Tetsuo, leaning over a balcony. Kotori is playing Spot The Person with him. Tetsuo's away in D-World, waiting to get his pass.

"I think I see your grandma," calls Kotori. Yuma follows her finger down to the crowd below.

"There she is!" He fingers the plaster stuck to his head. "What's she doing here?"

She's about to speak when the lights turn off, the windows shut and a projection of Mr Heartland appears where they were.

"Good morning all!" he says. The sharp, angled D-Gazer symbol appears in the corner of the projection and everyone in the room who has access to a D-Gazer puts it on, turns it on and dives into D-World.

Yuma is not one of these people. His grandma's got into the habit of kicking him and Akari out of the house every morning at seven, just after they eat breakfast, and not letting them back in until six, when either she or Akari starts cooking dinner. She turns off D-World then too, so, despite his and Akari's desperate pleas that morning, neither of them can use their D-Gazers properly.

When most people have their D-Gazer on, Mr Heartland continues his speech. "As you may already know," – it's common knowledge – "yesterday was Domino Dumping Day. This morning Chief Of Police Mikage Ushio announced that Domino had been cleared of all non-citizens. The application and ticket sales will begin in precisely," – he checks his D-Gazer – "two minutes." People start cheering as a countdown appears in another corner. Mr Heartland hasn't finished speaking.

"Unfortunately, the international duel level required for entry has been raised to level 7." Tetsuo swears. "Chief Organiser Sho Marufuji stresses that this change is temporary. Now that that's out of the way, I bid you farewell." Mr Heartland vanishes and the numbers fill the screen.

"I can't believe it!" growls Tetsuo. "I can't believe they did that! Why would they do that?"

"They probably had too many entries," says Kotori.

"That's a good thing, though, isn't it?" asks Yuma, before remembering that his friends can't hear him.

While Kotori and Tetsuo argue, Yuma watches the numbers on the screen as they count down. It's the tensest minute of his life, even though it means nothing to him; the energy of the crowd is carrying him along. Forty! Thirty! Twenty!

"TEN!" somebody shouts. Yuma stands to attention. Kotori and Tetsuo stop talking.

"NINE!" More people are joining in.

"EIGHT!" A full half of the crowd.

"SEVEN!" It's spreading to the balconies.

"SIX!" Yuma, Tetsuo and Kotori take up the chant.

"FIVE!" All together, shouting the same word.

"FOUR!" Yuma can swear he hears Akari's voice.

"THREE!" He catches sight of a group of kids from school.

"TWO!" The mascot dragons take their places on the screen.

"ONE!" They start flying.

"ZERO!" They cross flight paths. As they do, the countdown is replaced by two numbers, which immediately start falling. It takes Yuma a second to realise that they're application and ticket numbers. Because most of the population of Japan and most of the world's duelists are buying them, they're flying off the shelves.

"TICKETS GET!" screams Kotori, soon followed by Tetsuo. They hug each other, almost crashing into Yuma when Tetsuo topples over.

It's about then that Yuma is cut off from the frantic atmosphere, and he's immediately hit by the smell and noise of it all. It clamours in his ears. _I've got to get out of here._

But how? The people are pressing all around him, and there's no way he can clear a path without making himself visible in D-World, and he can't do that. Then he looks down. If he jumps and lands…

He climbs onto the banister. He'll try to land in the decorative pool, but if he can't he'll probably just land on the hands and be pushed out like a rock star.

"I'm striking for-"

"YUMA!"

Akari grabs his hand and pulls him down. She pushes him against the barrier.

"You're such an idiot! I can't believe you'd even consider doing something like that! You could've died! Do you have no sense of self-preservation?"

"Self-what now?"

She growls. "Let's just get out of here."

Akari inherited their grandmother's ninja-quick reflexes. Yuma is clinging onto her back like a baby monkey before he knows it.

"Now – don't squeeze my neck – we have to get out of here." And she pushes into the crowd.

Yuma tried that, of course, but his sister is more experienced at this sort of thing, has the physical strength to back up her skills, and, because she's a teenage girl, knows the mall like the back of her hand. She soldiers on through the crowd.

Not that there's much to soldier on through – the balcony crowd is more long than thick. Yuma breathes a sigh of relief.

"Come on," says Akari, as he climbs off her back. "We're not out of the woods yet."

Yuma climbs into the lift after Akari. She hits the down button, and the lift takes them to the bottom floor in a whirr of blue light. When they hit the ground floor, Akari motions for him to get on her back.

The door opens, and someone slips in. They don't seem to be aware that they have. Akari pays them no heed and pushes into the mass, kicking and shoving, dodging and ducking. Yuma just clings to her back and thanks anyone who's listening that he inherited the hard to hurt part of his grandma's ninjaness. At some point the screen drones that 'all applications have been taken and are being evaluated' and the siblings are caught in the rush of people who are only there to duel.

Robots outside are making sure that everyone either stays in or moves on. One accosts Yuma and Akari.

"Please move along," it drones, and waves a bat threateningly.

Yuma slides off his sister's back only for her to grab his hand. She runs, and he has to keep up through the whole journey to the park.

When they arrive there, both of them are panting – ninja endurance went to one of their cousins. Yuma stretches out on the grass. Apart from a cleaning robot, three small children and an incredibly old man who probably belongs to the last dregs of the pre-duelist generation, the park is empty.

"Hey, Akari?"

"Hmm?"

"Why'd you take me here?"

She sits up. "It's somewhere to be."

"No, seriously, why?"

"We need to figure out what we're gonna do for the rest of the summer."

"Huh?"

"Don't you get it? All the people in town will be at Battle City or the Surround or watching it in D-World or on TV. Except us and Grandma."

Yuma slowly grins as he realises what this means.

"We have the run of the city, right?"

"Us and about thirty other kids, old people and families." She's rubbing her hands together in excitement. "You know, apart from Battle City stuff, they essentially turn off D-World. They don't even bother working the robots until it's over!"

Yuma's eyes are shining now. No D-World and no robots mean no restrictions.

"Back at the last Battle City, me and some other kids went spelunking down the warehouse district, and if I say anything else the NPA will lock me up."

_It's like something out of Tashalian!_

"Besides, you're a Tsukumo. That makes you half-ninja. I'd better train you up," she pulls him up, "or Grandpa will haunt us."

Suddenly, the summer looks much brighter.

-0-0-0-

Two weeks pass, and Yuma can't remember why he even thought that.

The tickets ran out two days after Domino Dumping Day, and tickets for the various festivities in the Surround ran out after about a week. Every day more of his friends left, and now the only person in town he both knows and is not related to is the snooty class representative. Even he's leaving today.

He can't even follow his friends in D-World because his grandma's still kicking them out for the whole day, and the phone network's banned outgoing calls to Domino anyway so there isn't any point. Akari's trying to teach him the art of city spelunking, and while it's fun it's not the same without his friends.

He's at his favourite spot in the park, the top of an old jungle gym. While he's technically too old to be on it, it's turned out that Akari was right about the robots. Since there's no point in policing an empty city they've turned them all off. All the shops are closed for the same reason.

Yuma hangs upside down for the sake of it. Blood's rushing to his head, and if he doesn't want his plaster to burst off in a spray of gory glory he'll have to leap down soon. But not yet. Not now.

A car powers down the street, and because cars have become a rare sight he flips himself the right way up. It's the class rep's car. Yuma can see him in the back, along with his little sister. They catch each other's sight, and the rep looks surprised.

Then the car's gone, and Yuma's left alone with his thoughts.

He yawns, stretches and stands on the jungle gym. Off to the left, he can see the ice cream stall. He would kill for an ice cream around now.

Maybe there's still some there. He leaps off the jungle gym and runs straight there. The door's locked, but an enterprising half-ninja is never stopped by a door.

One battering with the ex-swing seat later, the door stands firm.

Yuma coughs. "I said, an enterprising half-ninja (by which I mean me) is never stopped by a door! I'm striking for the sky!" He slams into it with the swing seat. The door is unharmed.

Yuma gives a yell of ninja fury and charges into the door. He returns from it with sore fingers. The door, predictably, is unharmed. He could swear it's grinning at him.

He sucker punches the door again and again. His fingers are aching and if he has to come up with one more simile for how his punches have absolutely no effect he's going to scream.

Defeated, he rests his arm on the door handle. It pushes down and the door slides open.

He's been trying to break down an unlocked door.

He groans in frustration and kicks it all the way open, before stomping in, muttering, "There'd better be ice cream in here."

It turns out there is, lots of it, in fact. He grabs a spoon and a tub of chocolate and delves in.

"You know, just because they've turned off the robots doesn't mean they've turned off the CCTV."

Yuma freezes with the spoon in his mouth. Akari's standing in the doorway, smirking. She holds out her hand.

"Come on. You've got to do something so terrible they'll call in the NPA and forget about this."

He spits out the spoon and grabs her hand with his clean one. She pulls him up.

A horn honks outside.

"AKARI! YUMA! CAR! NOW!"

It's Grandma. Akari pulls Yuma out of the ice cream shack. Grandma's sitting in her car with the passenger doors open.

"What are you waiting for? In!" The siblings do as they're told.

Ten minutes later, when they have their seatbelts on, an old J-pop band is playing and the car is inching out of the city, Yuma asks their grandma where they're going.

"Oh, to- Wait, I forgot." The car's on autopilot, so she can reach for her D-Gazer without disrupting anything. "Here we go." She puts on her D-Gazer. "Password: Fourth Disciple. Transfer ticket BCFA-7584 to Akari Tsukumo. Transfer ticket BCFA-7608 to Yuma Tsukumo."

Yuma can already suspect her surprise, but he checks just to be sure. He doesn't let himself scream "YES!" until he sees the words _YUMA TSUKUMO – BATTLE CITY – FULL ACCESS_ on his own D-Gazer.

Of course, when he does, he immediately starts an impromptu finger-jive. "Oh yeah! Uh huh! I'm going! To Battle City!"

As Yuma parties in the background, Akari glares at Grandma.

"You know Dad forbade it."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"But your pension!"

"I've been saving up. Besides, going to Battle City's something every boy and girl should do."

"We need to get the cops off Yuma's track!"

"I'll arrange something. I'm an ex-ninja, I have contacts."

Akari's so stunned at the revelation of what she and her brother have suspected for so long she's thrown off kilter. Grandma smiles in a triumphant sort of way and drives on.

-End Chapter-

Continuing Battle City Olympics-style seems just the sort of thing Kaiba would do.

R&R!


	2. The Bright Towers Of Domino

Wow, I thought I had my scheduling problems sorted out. Seems not. Bad Mitzi! Bad!

Festival Of Memory

Chapter 2: The Bright Towers Of Domino

"Yuma Tsukumo, King of Games!"

The audience goes wild. A million fangirls scream, somebody sets off fireworks, and everyone else whoops and hollers. The host, who looks suspiciously like Tetsuo's big sister, smiles and motions for him to sit. He does, right next to her.

"So, Yuma Tsukumo," she says, crossing her legs and leaning closer, "how did you become First, Second, Third and Fourth King of Games?"

"Well, first I won Battle City and I duelled Yusei Fudo and I won," he says, while she uh-huhs every so often, "then I duelled Judai Yuki and I won, then I duelled Yugi Mutou and I won, then Pegasus came back from the dead just to duel me and I won."

"What about the Legendary Duelists?"

"Oh." He waves his hand in an I-don't-really-care way. "I beat them all ages ago."

"In that case," she clicks her fingers, "I award you the Best Duelist In The World Ever trophy, statues of all your monsters, a billion yen and I'll be your girlfriend." She blows him a kiss, and the curtains come down to reveal each and every one of the Legendary Duelists including the ex-Kings of Games, all chanting, "Yu-ma! Yu-ma! Yu-ma! Yu-ma! Yu-ma!"

"YUMA! YUMA!"

He blinks. He's in the back of the car. Akari's waving a scanner in his face.

"Get your D-Gazer on."

"But…"

"Now! Before this thing explodes!"

Yuma flips his D-Gazer out of his pocket, puts it on and turns it on. Akari scans his eyes. The scanner flashes green, and she puts it back in its holder outside the car.

"What was that for?"

"We've just reached Domino. It needed to check your ticket."

"Oh," he says, before what she said sinks in and he shouts "DOMINO?"

"That's what I said – Yuma, are you hyperventilating?"

He doesn't hear anything else she says. He's in Domino! Domino City! Battle City is going to start in a week and he's going to be there!

"Yahoo! I'm striking for the sky!" He looks out of the window.

"Grandma, why are we in a tunnel?"

"We're going by the tourist entrance to Domino. It's underground."

"Underground?" The approach to Domino is said to be awe-inspiring. Why can't he see it?

"Traffic, Yuma. Traffic."

"Can you read minds?"

"No, you said that out loud."

"That was mean!"

"How was it mean?"

"It just was!"

"Yuma! Akari!"

They stop what's rapidly turning into a fight and turn to face their grandmother.

"We're here."

'Here' is an old subway station, painted up bright to serve as an entrance to Domino. They're parked on the tracks, at the tail end of a long line of cars. Grandma opens the doors and lets them out.

A few minutes later, Yuma is sitting on the backpack Grandma packed for him. He's kicking his hoverboard around. Akari's duffel is swinging from her shoulders and Grandma's pulled a chair out of her suitcase.

"Haru!" A woman with strikingly black hair even though she's about Grandma's age pops out of nowhere, making Yuma and Akari jump. She embraces Grandma.

"Momoe, it's so good to see you!"

"Are these your grandchildren?"

"Yes."

"They've grown so tall!" The woman walks over to Yuma and Akari. She pinches Yuma's cheeks. "Remember me, Kyo? Last time I saw you, you were three years old!"

"I'm Yuma," he grumbles, although it's muffled.

"And Sally!" She hugs Akari, leaving Yuma to try to knock his cheeks back into shape. "How's that scholarship coming?"

"Actually, I'm Akari."

She blinks. "Are you?"

"Sally has brown hair. Kyo is incredibly short," says Grandma, as she comes to their rescue. She doesn't mention that they're part of the Zombie Cleanup Squad and thus haven't been in Japan for something like five years.

"Sorry."

"Easy mistake to make."

EASY? How the heck can it be easy to confuse him with Kyo? Kyo is all swotty and smarmy, and Yuma's cool and daring. What is wrong with this woman?

"Well," she continues, "regardless of who you are, you must all be very tired." Yuma nods, even though he isn't. "We'll take a monocar back to the Bubble."

"What's the Bubble?"

"My house."

"Why aren't we taking the car?"

"Traffic, Akari. Traffic."

What kind of a house is called the Bubble? Yuma's thinking about what it must be like when Akari grabs his arm in one hand and his backpack in the other and drags him off.

She lets him go in the lift. Yuma clutches his hoverboard as it whirrs into action. The two old women start chatting, and after he heaves his backpack on, he turns to his sister and asks,

"So, who is she, anyway?"

Akari's got her book reader out of her duffel, and is browsing for something.

"Momoe Hamaguchi. She lived next door to Grandma when she was pregnant with Aunt Kiseki."

"Uh-huh."

"They lived in Domino City."

"Uh-huh."

"Forty-five years ago."

"Where are you going with this?" The lift opens, and Akari sighs.

"Domino City. Forty-five years ago." They walk into a giant car park. "Zero Reverse?"

Yuma snatches his hoverboard from the jaws of the lift doors. "What's Zero Reverse?" Akari stops.

"You don't know what Zero Reverse is?" He shakes his head, waiting for the explosion.

"Zero Reverse was-"

"An accident at the Momentum reactor."

Both of them turn to Momoe Hamaguchi. Grandma's standing beside her.

"It spun out of control, causing an enormous earthquake. Half of the city was flung out to sea." She shuts her eyes. "There's noone in Domino that didn't lose somebody."

"Akari. Yuma." Grandma. "As a rule, those in Domino don't talk about Zero Reverse." She turns around, and leads a solemn procession to Momoe's monocar.

As the car leaves the station, Yuma looks out onto the skyline. It's awesome, but he can gush at a more reasonable hour. Is that a person on top of that skyscraper?

He takes a picture with his D-Gazer just before the person vanishes again. It's hard to make out features what with the shadows and all, but he can definitely pick out a jacket and trousers, an old duffel bag, a small cat and… Gold eyes? He shows the picture to the rest of the car.

Akari shrugs. Grandma hmms. Momoe Hamaguchi examines it closely before giving it back. He puts it back on and jettisons the mystery from his mind.

-0-0-0-

"Oww…"

"Just because we're in Domino doesn't mean you can laze around!"

"Why are you lazing around, then?"

"I'm old! Old people are allowed to be lazy."

Yuma's still trying to figure out how she packed her broom, but then again, she's a ninja. An explanation will only make it worse.

As for now, he's sprawled outside the Bubble (so named because it looks like one and is floating on the river), next to Akari, with their D-Gazers and his D-Pad and deck next to them.

He opens his deck and flips through it. All there. He's going to try to get some commemorative cards (he has his eyes on Revive The Dead) and then he's going to duel his way into the history books and become King Of Games.

"Say, Yuma?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you know where this Battle City festival thing is?"

The first thing he thinks of saying is, "It's not a festival, it's a tournament!" The second thing is, "You're the responsible one!" The third thing is, "I have no idea," and the three sentences tumble up in his mind before he settles on a shrug.

Akari groans. Then she grins.

"Let's go search for it, then."

The search turns out to be a lot shorter than either of them expect, for the simple reason that everyone's going in the same direction. They just have to follow the crowd.

That, and look at the sights.

Two girls with wings zoom above them. Two D-Wheelers hurtle down a maglev track (do maglevs support D-Wheels? Because they don't in Heartland) switching tracks on what seems like a whim. Two pod-cars race through the sky, helicopter blades whipping as they dodge between buildings. And all around them, acting as a sparkling backdrop, are the bright towers of Domino, each and every one an interface screen, broadcasting adverts, sponsors, profiles of various famous duelists and where they are dueling today, and the occasional public service announcement from an overly-pretty but worried-looking green-haired woman.

The weird thing isn't that, though. The weird thing is that all of them are dueling.

The winged kids are dragging up holographic monsters with what can't be the old Solid Vision stuff but must be a new and improved version of it (either that or they're doing it because it's Battle City and Battle City is a celebration of the old as well as the new). Even though the D-Wheelers are in D-World, he can still see from here the horrible driving that is the mark of someone trying to focus on a duel. The pod-cars have significantly better driving, but that's because one person is piloting and another is dueling. In the white tunnels that connect the buildings, he can see in many places two people facing each other, staring each other down. There are platforms – D-Stages – all over the city too, and all the ones he's seen so far have been occupied.

Hey, wait a minute, are the Atlas Family dueling today? He stops and focuses on a banner running around a tower.

_Atlas Family – Five Star Alliance – Prime D-Stage 3 – 11:00 – Atlas Family – Five Star Alliance…_

Yuma doesn't focus on much else. The Atlas Family are dueling today! Jack Atlas is his third favourite Legendary Duelist (and the only one in his top ten who isn't dead, retired or extremely hard to find), Carly comes in at fifteen, and while Daisy, Andrew and Kiki aren't Legendary (yet) he still likes them a lot. He thinks the Five Star Alliance are a European team, but he doesn't really pay much attention to the foreign teams.

"Hey, Akari, can we go see this? Akari? AKARI?"

There's no answer.

The crowd has moved on, and it's taken his big sister with him.

-0-0-0-

Yuma imagined getting to the hub on a D-Wheel, with Kotori, Tetsuo, Akari and Grandma with him, all five of them with D-Pads out and ready to play.

Instead he got there at the tail end of the largest crowd he'd ever been in, far away from friends and family and completely and utterly lost. His extra deck's missing, he's lost his D-Pad, his D-Gazer's not connecting and he can't see a single friendly face.

Right now, he's sitting under a statue of a Legendary Duelist (he doesn't know which one), surrounded by duelists and the people cheering them on. He's tried starting duels himself, but as soon as they see that he doesn't have a D-Pad they wave him off. Besides that, he has nothing to do but wait for the lines to clear up (they go out occasionally in Heartland, but only when there's a problem with the weather) and hope Akari finds him.

He's not too confident.

"Are you lost?"

"No."

"Wanna duel?"

"Don't have a D-Pad." That thing cost an entire year's worth of pocket money. How could he have lost it?

There comes a shuffle and a bump. There's a boy sitting next to him now. He has duelist-bright hair, a D-Pad on one arm, a sixty-card deck and a vaguely wistful look.

"You don't need a D-Pad to duel."

"But that's half the point! You can't showboat without a D-Pad!"

"They managed fairly well with duel disks."

"You know what I'm talking about." He checks his D-Gazer. Still can't get through.

"And duel arenas."

"They haven't used those since the Stone Age!" What _is_ it with the connection? It's refusing to even try to link to the servers, let alone let him on.

"Let's not forget the old Egyptian blocks."

"Are you making this up?"

"No, but that's a secret."

Yuma has no idea what he just said, so he diverts the conversation in the only way he knows how – whipping out his deck. The boy sees him, grins, and flips his out of his D-Pad.

"DUEL!"

All things considered, it's not a bad duel. Sure, it's really hard to jump around, dramatically draw cards, or play a monster's summoning track when they're sitting down with pieces of paper rather than standing up playing with holograms, but he doesn't have to worry about smashing into people he can't see, so that's a plus. It also doesn't impede his insanely complex summoning chants, reckless card tossing and general hamminess, all of which he does with wild abandon.

He loses in three turns, of course. But it's better than he normally does and he has a ton of fun, too. When he loses, he looks at the crowd that's gathered around and yells, "I'm striking for the sky!"

Some of them clap out of dubious amazement. At least one person whoops. Someone else mutters, "I can see why he chose that statue." The majority just look confused.

A girl with her hair in spiral-shaped plaits steps out and says "Duel me!" in a very plummy voice. He does. It's not like he has anything else to do, and it takes him four turns to lose this one.

For what could be anything from a few minutes to a few hours, Yuma's in dueling heaven. He duels anyone who comes near and that will let him play, and he picks up two old D-Pads that've been rigged to show holograms and at least two new cards at some point. The crowd just keeps growing, and he's at the centre of attention. He even manages to win a couple of games.

After a one-turn kill on his opponent's part, he puts his deck back in its holder, and is about to shout for another duel, when an arm closes around his wrist and drags him behind. He almost screams before noticing that it's Akari and trying to find something else to focus on instead.

"How could you run off like that? Domino isn't Heartland! Do you know how many people are in this city? There are probably more people in the nearest mile than there are in all of Heartland! Did you want to get lost?"

Without warning, she pulls him into a hug.

"Don't do that again, okay?"

"I won't, sis."

"Good." She puts him down, stands up and claps her hands. "Show's over, you can all go now. My little brother wants to watch Jack Atlas dueling, and we're gonna watch him duel in five minutes and then we're going to go to all the tourist tat shops you see in the movies. Goodbye!"

It takes a moment for him to process what she's said, but when he reaches the bit about Jack Atlas in five minutes, he races off after her.

His own duel's okay, but this is Jack Atlas. He can duel some more later.

-0-0-0-

Akari admires her new hairstyle in the shop's mirror.

It's poofy, and very sharp. All of it is a bright red shade she picked completely at random or some lighter reds and pinks on the underside. She has a bottle of dye to keep it there, and some conditioner. She pays the stylist and goes to look for her brother.

When she finds him, sitting in the foyer, chatting with some kids his age (she thinks she sees cards being exchanged) she gasps.

"Yuma Tsukumo!" He drops his cards.

"Big sis, I was just browsing, then I saw…"

"What. Have. You. Done. To. Your. Hair!"

She can't believe it. She seriously can't believe it. How much hair gel is he using to keep it up? Red and black just do not go together like that, and what is it supposed to be, anyway?

"What is it supposed to be, anyway?"

Yuma pats his new spikes. "A lionfish. Or a shrimp. Or something. I just got it because it looked cool."

"You didn't think about what people will think when we get back to Heartland?"

"They'll think I have the coolest hair in school, of course. That's why I chose it."

"You're confusing 'people in Heartland' with 'your classmates'. They'll the only ones who'll be impressed."

"Noone's said anything yet!"

"That's because this is Domino! Weird stuff's normal here!"

"Ahem." The speaker is the receptionist, who has his old mobile in one hand (the D-World servers are still down). Akari and Yuma turn to face him.

"You are disturbing the artists. Please leave." Right on cue, the door opens. With the glare of the receptionist and everyone else in the foyer burning into their backs, the siblings make a quick exit. Someone throws Yuma's deck after them, and it hits him on the head, splitting the caked-on dye into pieces. He rubs his head and grumbles, before dumping his backpack on the ground.

They're in the market area of Battle City. She hasn't seen a duelist for ages, just stall after stall selling memorabilia, souvenirs, food, the Next Revolution In Dueling (by far the most common) and, occasionally, autographs.

Akari leaves he to put his cards back in the duel disk he bought (it took him three minutes to stop gushing about it) and goes to the D-Wheel she rented. She drags it out to the street, kicks it into gear, gets on and waits for Yuma.

After a couple of minutes, he comes running through the market, bumping into three people and a cleaning robot and hitting a lot more with his flailing backpack. She sighs, and waits for him to tell her who he saw. They're all the same to her, really.

Sure enough, he waves in her face a photo of him and a guy with worse hair than his, both carrying duel disks. It's signed, but she doesn't recognise the name. He's also waving a new type of special card around, but she expects the Exceeds will be lost to history within a week.

As he chatters, she gets onto the bike, puts on her D-Gazer, remembers about the network, takes it off and boots up the satnav. The satnav spreads across the D-Pad part, showing a map of the city tagged with important points. A small dot shows where they are. Yuma hops onto the back.

"Where are we going next?"

Yuma's been deciding for most of the journey. They've been hopping from landmark to landmark, stopping whenever they see an interesting shop. She picks a dot at random.

_At this spot was the first recorded duel that used the mysterious card Osiris's Heavenly Dragon, one of three cards in a set that appeared out of nowhere, became the ace cards of Yugi Mutou_ (oh great) _and vanished three years later. This spot once bordered a river, but the river was dammed,_ flashes an information display. Akari moves to touch something else, but it's too late – Yuma's already seen it.

"Yugi Mutou! Let's go there!" He taps the satnav. _Autopilot Y/N?_ He hits Y.

Under the circumstances, it's the stupidest thing he could possibly do. Autopilots are made for cars on empty country roads and Heartland during the holidays, not ten-year-old motorbikes in the middle of the busiest street in the busiest city in the world during the busiest month of the year.

They race down the street, smashing through stalls and cars. The D-Wheel is relentless. It doesn't stop for anything, following its default street plan, which has been outdated slightly in the past ten years. Whenever Akari thinks she has the thing under control, a building shows up that isn't in the plan and she has to pull aside. After this, she's either leaning to one side at a 45 degree angle or trying to guide it as it sparks along the route. She's fairly sure at least one building collapses.

At last she manages to hit the off switch, but it's only as they're reaching a cleared out area. The road is quite straight here, and she grabs the breaks, trying to pull down their momentum.

When she sees the ditch that might have been a canal at one point, she stops that and opens the throttle. Yuma, who's been screaming for most of the ride, asks her what she thinks she's doing and if she wants them to… He realises what she's planning and holds on tight as Akari races up a ramp from an old construction site and powers into the air.

They're flying, actually flying, and people on both sides are standing up and taking notice. "JUMP!" someone screams, and from a combination of adrenaline and instinct they obey.

Akari spins and twists, trying to lose her momentum. Eventually, she just gives up on that and ploughs into the crowd. Yuma lands on the asphalt. His skin is scraped and his ankles are nearly twisted, but he's fine overall. The bike zooms straight into the nearest wall and bursts into flames.

She leaps out of the crowd, apologising as she does until she stands on the edge of the embankment. Half the crowd decides to check the bike and the other half decides to ask the sort of questions she doesn't like answering.

"Nicely done, kid." A man in his thirties pushes his way through the crowd and approaches her. Akari would punch him in the face for that if he wasn't carrying a gun. He turns to the crowd and claps his hands. "Show's over, you can all go home." They take one look at the gun and oblige.

"Are you a cop?" She has one eye on his gun. He pats it.

"Interested in this, eh?"

"Are you a cop?" she asks again. She's not sure what answer she wants to hear.

"Yeah, but not the kind of cop who busts kids who crash D-Wheels." _Must not punch in face, must not punch in face…_

"Don't all cops do that?"

"I'm not all cops. I'm the cop you happened to run into." He scans the skyline and snaps the crash site. He turns to her, and stares.

"What?" Is she burned? Is there dye seeping out of her hair?

"For someone who's just lost their deck, you look pretty calm."

"How did-"

"You're wearing tight clothes and no deck belt, and you aren't carrying a D-Pad. Your deck was in there."

"Actually, it wasn't. I'm not a duelist." Just that? Why is everyone in this city so obsessed with a bloody card game?

"Why are you here, then?" He draws back, and his hand moves to his gun. "Are you with the dueling-is-destroying-our-society cults?"

"No! No! Course not!" she says quickly, waving her hands around in an I-didn't-do-anything-except-crash-a-D-Wheel kind of way. "I'm with my brother, the kid with the shrimp hair! He's the duelist!"

The not-cop moves his hand away from his gun, and scans the crowd for Yuma. Akari has to point him out. He's duelling and losing badly, as usual.

"His hairstyle's really weird, isn't it?"

"I've seen weirder."

They sit back, watching Yuma duel and people poke the D-Wheel wreckage. Someone's brought out a fire extinguisher, and is now spraying the thing.

"It gets better," he says.

"What'd you say?"

"They stop worrying about this kind of stuff come their twenties. It's just a popular card game after that. You can get through life not playing. It's not like all the security systems in the world rely on Duel Monsters or something stupid like that." He stretches. "Anyway, gotta go." He walks off towards the docks.

"…That was weird," Akari murmurs. Then she claps her hands, and walks Yumawards. "You must have finished sightseeing by now…"

"THERE SHE IS! GET HER!" The guy she rented the D-Wheel from is pointing at her, growling. He also has thugs.

Akari swears and runs towards Yuma. She grabs his arm and flips him onto her back.

"Sis, I was duelling!"

"Screw that, we have to run!" And run she does, into the crowds of Domino, Yuma on her back, screaming. She'll lose this guy in the crowds and think of something later. Maybe ask Grandma for help.

Yuma's duel disk pokes her in the side, quickly followed by his hair. It's going to be a long afternoon.

-0-0-0-

The Bubble bobs slowly in the night breeze.

Yuma's playing with a lightstick Momoe has. On a day like this in Heartland, he'd be duelling about now. But he's had enough of duelling for today.

Did he actually just think that? This city's messing with his mind. But still. Domino.

The other reason he's not duelling is that the entire network's crashed. Just D-World at first, but now the whole thing – phones, internet, TV – is down. Most people are blaming hackers or traffic. Yuma doesn't really care.

He's dancing with the lightstick now, trying to make it reflect off the semi-translucent walls to make it look like fireworks. It's worked before, and it'll work again, if he can just get the angle right…

Got it! The not-fireworks sparkle just for an instant before a slightly larger blast of wind hits the Bubble and sets him spinning. It doesn't hurt, but it does ruin the image. He groans and goes to try again.

He has it again when the electricity goes for a moment, making him jump. When he realises that he's lost it, he gets ready to go into a tirade of all the bad words he knows, no matter what Grandma thinks.

Then the TV screen fizzes, and switches on, and he doesn't care anymore. He looks for the remote (sealed to the Bubble wall in what looks like bubble juice), sits on the floor (it moulds around him) and gets ready to watch. Tashalian's on channel 63, right?

Channel 63 is not showing the adventures of Tasha and Lian. Instead, it's the PSA woman. Yuma groans and is about to change the channel when he registers what she's saying.

"…typhoon to hit Domino within the next week, counting the anti-typhoon system…" Oh no. Next week! That's right in the middle of Battle City! They're going to cancel it and he'll never see it!

"With this in mind, Battle City will be pushed ahead." _Say what?_ He hits rewind.

"Battle City will be pushed ahead – be pushed ahead – pushed ahead." He lets it play on. "It will begin tomorrow."

Tomorrow? Battle City, the biggest event of his life so far, is starting tomorrow?

"YES!" He punches the air, stands up, shakes the bubble juice off him and does a quick victory dance (harder than it sounds). "Ba-to-ru-shi-ti! Ba-to-ru-shi-ti! I'm going! I'm going!"

Wait, the TV's running. That means the phones are back on!

The starting duel's at seven in the morning, and Tetsuo'll try to be there for half-six. The Satellite Street Phase will start when that duel ends, and Kotori can't make it till nine, but he'll wait for her. The D-Wheel Super Prix is on the maglev tracks this year, and Chuki's not coming if Shiara is.

Akari finds him about an hour later, yakking through his D-Gazer, cards spread out all over the floor, TV playing a PSA in the background. She gets ready to ask what has him so excited, before deciding that she'd be happier not knowing, and leaving her brother to his fanboy dreams.

Then she runs into Grandma. Who is wearing the kind of big smile only fanboys wear.

It's about then that she realises exactly what the next week is going to be like.

The sound of her swearing echoes around the Bubble, as does the sound of the broom hitting her on the head.

-End Chapter-

One of the reasons this chapter was so late is that I tried to insert a subplot involving some characters from the previous series. This went on for quite a while before I remembered that you all came here for Yuma in Battle City and that's what I'll give you. I'm still writing the subplot, though; it'll be posted as a separate story. It'll probably be called _Post Game Anaylsis & Clear Up _and be in the DM/GX crossover section. Probably.

I'm putting up a Progress section on my profile, showing the progress of all my fics. Go there before you pester me for updates - might as well give it context, eh?

R&R!


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